The Importance of Heritage

Heritage is something that everyone should value and see as an important part of themselves. The reason for this is that a persons heritage is a part of them, it is the very thing that has gotten them to where they are now. The individual themselves may not respect or value their own past and what has been handed down to them from their ancestors but their parents must do.

There can be many different types of heritage such as cultural heritage, tradition, and even food heritage. An example of important heritage would be say for example the first world war. Many people died fighting for their country and for the chance for the future generations to have freedom and despite all this sadly there are some that are clueless to this fact. Some peoples attitude is that what happened in the past does not affect them at all as they are living in the present contrary to this I think that past is the very reason that they are here in the present. The best way to sum this up would be from a quote by Dr. Carl Sagan who said that "You have to know the past to understand the present."

There is also the point of some who seem to be almost ashamed of their own heritage and so they refuse to accept it or just deny its existence all together and I personally think that this is wrong as I believe for one to be truly happy for everything the first step is to accept who you are and not try to change it. Due to those people living in a different society now to the one where their parents or even grandparents grew up in being different they feel almost embarrassed or where they are from and some are even embarrassed of their own culture and therefor choose to not accept it but hide it as if it did not exist.

It is important to understand what others went through to make sure you would make it to the present and live the very life you are living right now. Now im not saying that people should live in the past and devote all their time into learning about the past but everyone should be aware and have knowledge to a certain extent as to what their own heritage is as by making them more aware people become more grateful for what they have and will be less likely to take it for granted.